Google Business Profile: The Free Listing Most Small Businesses Underuse

Search for almost any local business and the first thing you often see isn't the website. It's a panel with a map, a star rating, opening hours, a phone number and a few photos. That panel is your Google Business Profile, and it's free.

For many small businesses it does more of the early work than the website does. It's also the thing most often left half-finished: claimed once, never updated, hours wrong, no photos. Here's how to fix that in an afternoon.

What it is, and why it matters

A Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) is the listing that appears in Google Search and Google Maps for your business. It lets customers find you, call you, get directions and read reviews without ever opening your site.

It's especially useful if you serve customers in a specific area, which is true for most Delaware small businesses. You don't pay to have a profile, and you don't need a website to have one.

Step 1: Claim and verify it

Search for your business name. If a panel appears with "Claim this business" or "Own this business?", click it. If nothing appears, you can create a profile from business.google.com.

Google will ask you to verify that you're really the owner, usually by phone, text, email, video or postcard. Google decides which options you get, depending on your business. Until you've verified, you can't control what the listing says.

Use a Google account that belongs to the business, not a personal one tied to an employee who might leave. Make sure at least one other trusted person has access.

Step 2: Make the basics exactly right

Check each of these and treat any mismatch as urgent:

• Business name. Use your real, everyday name, not a string of keywords. Google can suspend listings that stuff extra words into the name.
• Address or service area. If customers visit you, show your address. If you travel to them, set the areas you serve instead.
• Phone number. One main number you actually answer.
• Website. Link the page you most want people to land on.
• Hours. Including holiday and seasonal changes. Wrong hours are one of the quickest ways to lose a customer's trust.

Use the same name, address and phone number everywhere: your website, your social profiles, and any directories you're listed in. Consistency helps customers, and it helps Google understand that these are all the same business.

Step 3: Choose categories and describe your services

Pick the primary category that best describes your main business, then add a few secondary ones that are truly accurate. Be specific, so "Roofing contractor" is better than something vague.

Then fill in:

• Services you offer, in plain language
• A short description of what you do, who you do it for and where. Write it for a person, not a search engine.
• Attributes that apply to you, such as appointment options or accessibility features

Step 4: Add real photos

Profiles with photos look alive, and customers like to see what they're walking into. Upload:

• Your storefront and the entrance (people hate circling the block looking for you)
• Your team at work
• Examples of your best finished work
• Your products or the inside of your space

Use real photos taken on a decent phone in good light. Skip stock images and anything that misrepresents you. Aim to add a few new ones every month or so rather than all at once.

Step 5: Ask for reviews, then answer them

Reviews are the part of your profile you don't fully control, but you can influence them through a simple habit: ask every happy customer. Do it at the moment they're thanking you. Send a short text or email with your review link afterwards. You can find a direct link to your review form inside your profile: open Read reviews, then Get more reviews.

A few rules keep you out of trouble:

• Don't offer rewards for reviews, and don't write them yourself or ask friends to. Google's policies prohibit fake or incentivized reviews.
• Reply to every review, good or bad. Thank people by name where you can. For critical reviews, stay calm, acknowledge the problem and offer to fix it offline. Future customers read how you handle complaints.

Step 6: Keep it current

A profile isn't a one-time job. A short monthly routine is enough:

• Check that your hours, phone and address are still right.
• Reply to any new reviews.
• Add a few photos.
• Use posts or updates to share an offer, an event or a seasonal reminder, if you have something worth saying.

Check how it's working

Your profile includes basic performance information showing how people found you and what they did next, such as calling or asking for directions. Look at it every few months. Don't fixate on small swings, but notice the direction over time.

Also compare your listing with your local competitors', who are probably competing for the same map results. Our post on sizing up local competitors online shows how.

Connect the dots with your website

Your profile and your website should tell the same story: same name, same hours, same services. If your profile sends someone to a slow or confusing site, you've done the hard part and lost them at the door. Run your site through PageSpeed Insights, and set up Google Search Console so you can see how it's found in search.

Our free guide, The 25-Point Small Business Website Checklist, is a good next step for checking the site side of the equation. It's free when you sign up for the free website and competitor analysis.

Want us to take a look?

Not sure whether your profile, your website and your competitors add up to a problem? Request our free website and competitor analysis. Our research team reviews your site and your local competitors, and then we go through what we found with you on a free Zoom consultation, scheduled within one week. There's no cost and no obligation, and you keep the findings either way.

Richard runs Pulsar Strategies, a digital marketing and web design agency for small businesses based in Smyrna, Delaware.